GDP reminds me of my Dad's favorite joke.

In the deep South, a young man was sent to a penitentiary with a whole lot of lifers. On his first day, he noticed something funny--one prisoner would shout a number-- "15!" and all the other men would split their sides laughing. Then another prisoner would speak up-- "23!" and they'd all laugh again.

So he found an old-timer that'd been there for decades, and asked him for an explanation. The old man said "Son, there was a time when we used to tell jokes here, until we finally told all the jokes any of us knew. So there was no point in repeating the same damn joke all over again--we just assigned each joke a number, and when we hear the number, we laugh at the joke. Saves us plenty of time."

The young guy wants to fit in, so he learns all of the jokes and each number that goes with it. It takes him months. Finally, one day, in the mess hall he calls out "45!"

No response. The newbie tries again--"14!"

The room is silent. The newbie tries a number he heard on the first day--"23!"

You could hear a pin drop. In his frustation, he turns to the old-timer and asks "I don't get it. What am I doing wrong?"

The old-timer glances sideways at him and says "Sorry, son--SOME people can tell a joke, and SOME people can't..."

Why do I bring this up? Because I forsee a day when we'll go in there, and instead of making the same tired old OP arguments and hearing the same divisive responses from each of the other parties, we'll be able to just type in a short phrase: "McClurkin!" or "IWR Vote!" or "Trial Lawyer!" and the rest will come on its own accord. It'll save us all plenty of typing...

I heard it first back in 1942. One of the drawbacks of being old.

What is this joke's number ? :)

:rofl:

...just so people could understand what you were doing.

"I don't know who the guys on the each side are, but the one in the middle looks like Willie Nelson!"